AfricaNext! preparation for UNCTAD XII. Background document values and identities conversation.
1. Coversation on “Values, Identities and Poverty Eradication”.
The conversation is organized by the Nana Kobina Nketsia IV Trust and Africa Next
Knowledge Brokerage and Interaction. The venues are the Conference Room of the Faculty
of Arts of the University of Cape Coast on February 21 and at the premises of the Regional
House of Chiefs, Sekondi, on February 22, 2008.
The primary aim of the conversation is to deepen the public sphere in Ghana beyond Accra
and also to craft a strategy for building epistemic communities of knowledge and action
between policy makers, the academe, policy think tanks and the general attentive publics.
The substantive topic “Values, Identities and Poverty Eradication” has been chosen on the
basis of wide-ranging and, indeed, continuing consultation. It salutes the important emphasis
in intellectual and practical steps of “mind-led development” Mr. Mats Karlsson, previous
Country Director of the World Bank.
I believe the substantive concern of the proposed conversation echoes the concerns of the
World Bank’s World Development Report 2009 on Development in 3 D especially as regard
falling distance and persisting division. We have also taken note of the importance of examination
of the contribution of the Creative Industries to Development in the important UNCTAD XII
conference which would take place here in Accra next April. The United Nations’ declaration
of this year as the Year of Languages is also relevant.
The tentative programme for the conversations is as follows:
Values, Identities and Poverty Eradication Development Dialogue
Outline Programme at Cape Coast University, Thursday, February 21,
2008
9.30am to 10:00am Protocol – Official Welcome by University, etc
10:03am to 10:20am First Lecture by Professor Princewill Alozie, Department of Classics
and Philosophy, University of Cape Coast, “Potentials of Culture for Development”
10:21 to 10:34 Brief Comment by Guests of Honour
10:35 to 10:50 Break
10:51 to 11:05 Second Lecture, Dr. Nana Akua Anyidoho, “The Individual in Ghanaian
Development”.
2. 11:06 to 11:20 Third Lecture, Dr. Raymond Osei, Head, Department of Classics and
Philosophy, University of Cape Coast, “The University as a Potential Creative Institution for
National Development”.
11:21 to 12:29 Discussion of Lectures One and Two and Three - To be Strongly Moderated
12:30 to 14:00 Lunch
14:01 to 14:20 Lecture Four Nana Kobina Nketsia V, Department of History, University of
Cape Coast, “Confused Identities and the Challenge of Wealth Creation”.
14:21 to 14:40 Lecture Five Dr. Amos Anyimadu, Africa Next! “Technology,
Decentralization and the Promise of the Creative Economy in Ghana”
14:41 to 15:15 Discussion of Lectures Four and Five
15:15 to 16:00 Follow-on Strategizing and Closing
3. Outline Programme at Sekondi, Friday, February 22, 2008
9:00—9:30 Protocol – Welcome by Regional Coordinating Council
9:31—11:30 Guided Tour of Sekondi and Takoradi on their contribution to the
Creative Industries in Ghana. Tour Guide, Nana Kobina Nketsia V, Omanhene
of Essikadu
11:31 to 12:00 Lecture by Honourable John Baidoe Ansah, Minister of Trade
and Industry, “The Relevance of the UNCTAD XII Process to Sekondi-
Takoradi”
12:01 to 12:30 Discussion of Minister’s Speech in the light of the Creative
Economy Field Tour
12:30 to 13:30 Lunch
13:31 to 15:00 Moderated “Town Hall” discussion with Creative Individuals
from Sekondi Takoradi area on the Challenge of the Creative Economy in
Ghana, especially from a Sekondi Takoradi Perspective. Leaders would include
Rikki Kwawu, Kwasi Owusu Ankomah, Yenok Art, Kofi Kum-Essoun, Ebo
Taylor, Anthony Akablay, etc.
15:00 to 16:00 Follow-on Perspectives and Closing